I am having an issues with photoshop becoming unresponsive. After about 10 minutes Photoshop will not open or create a document.

I've spent hours trying to fix this with no results. I've spent time on Nvidia's forums and tried downgrading the driver back to 275.33 with the same results. I've disabled opengl in photoshop with the same results. This error occurs on both CS5 and CS6 versions of photoshop. I've tried reinstalling photoshop (not removing and reinstalling, just reinstalling).

I can't tell if it's a photoshop issue or a Nvidia issue. I've read countless threads on this forum and can't find any help. Please help.

I don't have a specific answer, but if all else fails, you could try zero write your hard drive (after back up of course), then do a fresh install of the OS / apps. That usually corrects a lot of problems that still exist after other trouble shooting attempts. I know it's a pain in the butt.

Thank you to all the posters. I reall, really, really, need to avoid reinstalling Windows. It will be a full day lost for me at least.

I'm starting to think it's a Flash issue. The only way I can perdictibly recreate the problem is to go on the internet and start running flash applications. At some point, often not right away, the problem will occur. Anyone give any traction to this idea?

I'm having the same trouble as OP: Photoshop opens but will not create a new document or open an existing one. In addition to that, I've noticed that if you hammer on ctrl+n enough times and manage to actually get a document open, PS won't save it but will go through the motions of doing so.

There have been quite a few reports of this issue now over the last year or so and they seem specific to PS CS5 and up. They all remain unresolved. This is actually an easily searchable issue now.

I'm currently working on a big project across the suite and all the other Adobe applications are running fine.

I have tried all the suggested fixes with no result. One other issue that did become apparent, was re-installing PS. After uninstallation, the Adobe installer kept encountering "Exit Code 7" when trying to reinstall PS. The only way around this in the end seemed to be removing all Adobe software from the system and starting again. The original issue remains.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that PS CS5 has worked without any problems on this system for just under a year now. I haven't made any drastic changes to the system so I'm completely baffled as to why this is happening.

Hope this post goes some way to the issue being acknowledged and rectified.

There have been quite a few reports of this issue now over the last year or so

No there haven't. I think I remember one here on this forum. It's not happening for other people in any big way, so it is very likely a specific problem on your computer and the rectification is very likely going to have to come from you. We all take on the responsibility of integrating the things we buy for our computers.

Not sure how long you've been working on the problem, but have you tried using the System Restore facility to return your system configuration back to a time when it did work properly?

Allow me to add to this mystery. Right before this issue occurs the same image of a favicon sized orange clock will appear in my clipboard. I have no idea what this image is, or where it comes from. To test this I make sure not to copy anything and yet right before the "Can't open error" starts I always find it.

This keeps getting weirder and weirder. PS no logged error events coincide with this issue.

Also correct me if I'm wrong but is everyone piggybacking this thread with the same issue having the problem with Win 7 x64 and an Nvidia GTX series card?

It seems that way, all the previous threads look to be using this too.

I'm finding this very frustrating. At the end of the day, I have bought some software that doesn't work and I don't seem to be able to get support. I'm sorry to sound confrontational at all, that's the last thing I want but I think you are mistaken when you say this hasn't been mentioned before Noel. In my first post I included links to other threads with this same issue. It's not necessarily an issue "in a big way" but it is an issue nontheless and we're just trying to find some help.

I didn't say "hasn't been mentioned", but it's not common. You have specific problems on your system, and unfortunately because they're not common amongst a lot of people you're really going to have to take on the task of troubleshooting.

I have Windows 7 x64 and don't see these problems - ever, on any version of Photoshop, no matter how long Windows has been running. What I *don't* have is a nVidia graphics card.

I am not fond of nVidia products, because their driver quality leaves a lot to be desired. Note that I am a graphics software developer so I do know something about what's going on under the covers.

Anecdotally, around the time of Vista, I had a nVidia graphics card - one that cost $1,000.00. I had nothing but problems, and I was convinced the operating system was a flaky load of horse manure. NO version of driver nVidia had developed settled it down. In fact, newer drivers made the problems worse and worse.

After trying to stabilize it for months I finally broke down in desperation and spent a hundred and a half dollars on a mid-range "gamer" ATI graphics card, which (because it was a newer design) actually had better performance specs than older Quadro workstation card I had been trying to use. EVERYTHING turned around. My system completely stabilized and I was able to use that installation of Vista literally for years without further faults. To this day I only buy ATI cards, and I haven't been disappointed. Sure, ATI flubs a driver release now and again, but apparently not as often as nVidia.

Your nVidia GTX card and its drivers may - or may not - be at the core of the problems you're seeing but if nVidia IS the cause (and it's possible), Adobe can't very well do anything to fix their problems now can they? Adobe uses your graphics card quite heavily - probably more intensively than any other application. Makes sense, it's a cutting-edge graphics application.

Since there seems to be some thought that the nVidia drivers are involved with this problem, try removing them, and installing a different version. If the problem is changed, voila, you have both an answer and a workaround. If the problem isn't changed, try a different version still. Rest assured that Photoshop can open and save files consistently, or Adobe wouldn't be successful at selling the product.

You're welcome. Glad to hear you've got it sorted. This underscores the fact, which occasionally becomes poignant, that we users are the ones ultimately responsible for integrating all the software and hardware we have on our systems. It's the price we pay for monetarily inexpensive software and hardware.

Is it possible they've released drivers for CannyPics' video card but not yours? Or maybe that the drivers are beta level... Video gamer sites often get copies of those early. Maybe CannyPics will see your note.

As one who fought software issues with nVidia for a while myself, then "gave up" and bought an ATI card to my great relief, I can honestly say I will never buy another nVidia card. ATI isn't perfect - sometimes they botch driver releases too - but they generally have better quality than nVidia. They also seem to stretch the truth less with their ad copy.

That said, it's not really a certainty that in your case the display driver / GPU are at fault - though in CannyPics case it was.

For what it's worth, I've had nothing but rock solid reliable results from Photoshop CS5 on my system, in which I have an ATI Radeon HD 5670 card installed.

Well I don't want to jix it but I believe after about 20 hours I've resolved the issue. It appeared to be issue resulting from Gotomeeting and/or the Gotomeeting plugin for Microsoft Outlook messing with the windows clipboard. That's what the orange icon was about that I posted in my response on Apr 22, 20121:45 PM.

I'll update in a few days but as of the Gotomeeting uninstall I've gotten 12 hours with no PS crash and that's far and away the longest time in months.

However I was dealing with a fresh install for the most part. I built a brand new PC and had loaded chipset drivers for my motherboard, driver suite for my GPU, photoshop and one game when I noticed this problem. Everything worked fine on my old Core2duo 32bit XP computer though...

Turning off services one at a time until Photoshop worked told me that the problem was with my MSI Afterburner and MSI Kombuster software that came with the GPU. Once these programs were uninstalled Photoshop was back to normal operation.

I have even more info regarding this. The same issue came back for me shortly after uninstalling the MSI Afternurner/Kombuster. I tried 2 different models of Nvidia cards and even reformatted my PC. With absolutely nothing installed on my PC except Anti-Virus. Chipset/Graphics drivers, and Adobe CS4/5/6 I STILL had the problem....

(and yes the problem occured on all three versions of CS listed)

My resolution after 3 weeks of troubleshooting:

My Logitech Wireless keyboard was causing the program to crash when I used keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-C,V,N,J, etc etc... every crash I experienced was because of the wireless keyboard. I figured this out only after remoting into my computer from another location and seeing that the issue went away.

Installing the current Logitech drivers did NOT help.

I am back to a basic corded Microsoft keyboard right now but I havent had a problem in over a week.

I got the same problem as you guys here. After a windows restart, Photoshop was full functional for up to 30min or (in some cases) until I woke up my computer from standby. After that, things got increasingly confusing. First I could neither create a new file, nor open an existing. Sometimes even creating new layers wasn't possible.

After having done various efforts (complete reinstallation of my CS4 Design Standard, removal of logitech setpoint, trying different video drives and cards (all AMD), etc) I eventually managed to solve the problem by removing flashplayer. Unfortunately I can't tell you the exact version, but it must have been the latest 11.3 release for firefox.

Hopefully that helps you as well, until Adobe releases a fixed version

I don't think it's an adapter issue, further more a player issue. I belive I know the problem. And the answer. It is definetely a flash issue. I've been having the same issues too. Problem: Ben, when I watch a video or something on youtube, almost every video gets a lego brick: Adobe Flash has crashed. Then, ever since those errors, it would not let me open or interact in Photoshop. The Answer: Try reinstalling Adobe Flash Player or try updating it. I Updatedit , and, the problem went away, I can now interact with Photoshop. I don't think Adobe has addressed this issue quite yet, further more identified it either. Glad to help!

Well Chris (Adobe Staff) and others. I have more bad news to report. I eventually got so despondent with how this Photoshop issue was crippling my productivity that I completely reformatted my C:\ Drive and reinstalled Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

The issue persists.

I wanted to walk you through my install so you know how minimal my OS setup was when the error reappeared.

First Install Windows 7 Ultimate x64

2nd Eset Smart Security (Anti Virus/Firewall)

Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010

Adobe CS6 Photoshop x64 / Illustrator x64

Firefox

Flash Player

With that short steup, and no plugins or other 3rd party software, I still have the issue on a clean install. Same exact symptoms. I really don’t know what to do. This has really been the bane of my existence for the better part of a year and over both cs5 and cs6

I'm a whole lot less commited to Eset than I am agreeable to reinstalling my OS again. A couple notes. I have CS5 installed on my laptop that runs Windows Professional X64. My Laptop run almost the same software setup with a couple differences. 1) It's a laptop so I don't use an external keyboard and mouse; On my desktop I use a wireless Logitech Wave keyboard with a wireless Logitech Laser Mouse 2) My Latop runs Win 7 Professional; my desktop run Ultimate

Keep in mind that CS5 worked for almost a full year flawlessly with my current desktop setup until a couple months into this year. Something must have changed. My next step is to try a diffrent keyboard in the hopes that post 26 was on to something. I'll let you know.

I don't know if you are still having troubles with your Photoshop but if you are I have something that may help. I was having the same problems and I just solved them. Do a search in your Local Disk for Photoshop. Delete everything that has to do with Photoshop and reinstall. This resets your prefrences and fixed the problem for me.

…Do a search in your Local Disk for Photoshop. Delete everything that has to do with Photoshop and reinstall. This resets your prefrences and fixed the problem for me.

This is probably the worst advice and most egregious piece of misinformation I've read in this forum in the last ten years.

You can indeed trash any preferences files, but to unistall applications components this way is a big no-no. To uninstall the application, ALWAYS use the Adobe Uninstaller, followed by the applicable version of the Abode CS Clean Tool.

NEVER drag Adobe application components to the trash—ever.

But it is not necessary to unistall Photoshop to reset the Photoshop preferences:

To re-create the preferences files for Photoshop, start the application while holding down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS). Then, click Yes to the message, "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Settings file?"

Mac OS

Important: Apple made the user library folder hidden by default with the release of Mac OS X 10.7. If you need access to files in the hidden library folder to perform Adobe-related troubleshooting, see How to access hidden user library files.

I had a similar set of issues with photoshop cs6 on new install of Windows 7. After a reboot of the machine photoshop worked fine the first time but if reloaded, Photoshop wouldn't create a new file or open an existing file. I could drag an image in from Mini-Bridge but it would not save. I would have to either keep Photoshop open or reboot the machine any time I wanted to use Photoshop.

In my case this was not a preferences issue, GPU issue, nor even a photoshop issue. It was a permissions issue between Photoshop and the OS (Windows 7 64bit). With 7 and now with 8, Windows sometimes doesn't give you all the permissions it is supposed to when you set up the first user (an administrator by default) and using the "Run as Administrator options doesn't correct this.

To fix the problem I simply created a new user as an administrator and migrated my preferences and other setting over to the new user. The new user was given full permissions and Photoshop works just fine now.

I am having the exact problem, but where as ya'll are having the problem with photoshop cs6 amd cs5, I am haveing the problem with Elements 7. I also have Windows 7. I also do not us a Mac. I have an Acer. I am not high tech enough to understand how to fix it, or even go about finding the problem, but I figured I would share that it's with other Photoshop versions too.

If that solves the problem then you can either switch between users any time you want to use Photoshop, or transfer your user settings from the old account to the new one. The the tutorial here (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11470-windows-easy-transfer-transfer-computers.html) should work. Just do all the steps on the same computer even though some of the prompts Windows will give you reference an "old computer" and a "new computer." Once you have the setting transferred you can either just ignore the old profile or delet it.